Computer programming is a funny activity; it’s not straightforward to describe. Programmers, bloggers and academics have spilled a lot of text in trying to best explain what goes on when you program a computer.
It has aspects of design; it has aspects of writing; it’s a creative process. You come up with the steps you want the computer to take, and then… you en-code it. You write it down, in a language that the computer can understand. Written source code is an expression of a program or an algorithm. There’s a mystical feel to it.
Code is authored. It’s author knows what was intended, knows what was encoded. Other people can read and understand what the written code actually does (sometimes better than the author), but they can’t always know what was running through the mind of the person writing it.
Just as a poem reflects the passion of a poet, or a novel reflects the imagination of the novelist, written source code reflects the mind of a programmer – “Here is my solution to the problem.” Like any other written text, code is a snapshot of something of the mind. Often it’s a snapshot of something mundane, [woo hoo! A database connection! A bubblesort!] but then, we don’t always have the luxury of thinking about interesting things.
When we say that something is authored, it means that whatever it is, it was first conceived of. If a poem speaks of love, there was first a poet who loved. The novelist who wrote of danger may have never suffered a knife at his throat, but he certainly knew the concept. The humble programmer knows that he wants to connect to a database. Before the expression existed, the thing was known and understood.
Is God an author?
If God is an author, it means that I was known and understood before God created me. It means that he perfectly knows and understands (cause, effect, reality) my struggles and triumphs, my emotions and my spiritual head-bangings. If I feel it, then God first conceived of it.
He may not necessarily have desired it, but it is not outside the mind of God. If I want to call God an author, I acknowledge that I cannot tread on alien ground. It’s a comforting thought (yet I can also see how it might prove aggravating).